Toward the end of that day, they had passed through another village and set up camp in a pasture beyond it. Arcolin had spoken to the headman of the second village, a young man he did not know. The headman bowed and promised anything Arcolin might want, if only he would not ravage the vill.

“We don’t attack villages,” Arcolin said. “We are on hire from your city, to drive away brigands who rob you and damage your fields.”

“We have no brigands here,” the man said. “I’ve heard they have problems south of here.”

That night, well after dark, two men approached the camp and asked to see the commander. Arcolin chose to see them outside his tent, asking them to join him at the campfire where cooks were heating water to wash the cookpots.

“We wanted to talk to you privately,” one of them said. His gaze shifted back and forth; the other stood hunch-shouldered and silent. “Don’t you have someplace we can go?”

“No,” Arcolin said. They looked at the tents, and back at him; he held his expression and finally the speaker sighed.

“Well, sir … knight, you must be, I guess. It’s like this. That boy Stef, he’s afraid to say, because them brigands threatened him and his wife—she’s that big with their first, due by harvest.”

“So there are brigands.”

“Aye. They come every four hands of days and take toll, and then the damned city militia, that doesn’t stir itself to help us, comes to take taxes. And if you goes after them, sir, they’ll think we told and they’ll be down on us. Burn the fields no doubt. You can’t stop ’em. No one can; there’s too many.”

“More than us?” Arcolin asked.

“They said so,” the second man said. “They said we had to tell you the wrong way, if you made us answer.”

“You haven’t told me any way yet,” Arcolin said.

The first man grinned nervously. “Well—we was thinking, maybe it would be worth something.”

“If they come and find natas in your house,” Arcolin said, “they’ll know you took money from us and then they’re most like to send the whole village up in flames.”

“Oh, I wasn’t thinking natas,” the man said. “Maybe a few coppers? Maybe two each?”

“I’m thinking nothing,” Arcolin said. “We’ll just go on the way we think is best, good or bad. You can tell the brigands you told us nothing.”

The man gulped; his throat moved as he swallowed. “But he said—”

“Who?”

“I told you,” the second man said. “I told you we shouldn’t.”

“Shouldn’t what?” Arcolin said.

“Don’t you say anything!” the first man said.

“Oh, give over, Ari,” the second man said. “It’s not going to work, and we can’t be worse off for telling him the truth. He has the men with swords, after all.” He turned to Arcolin. “It’s our headman. He wanted us to find out what you knew, and then send you into an ambush. Ari’s right: they threatened him and he gave in.”